This week’s dream: The presidential trail in Ecuador

last updated 8 January 2015

The GalÃ¡pagos Islands get all the attention, said Felix Milns in the Financial Times, but there are many “awesome experiences” to be found in the Ecuadorian mainland. Stretching from the Andes to the Amazon Basin, the country contains 55 volcanoes, 1,600 bird species, and 25,000 different kinds of plants—“10 percent of the world’s total” varieties. Equally astounding are the corruption of public officials and the widespread illiteracy of the rural classes.

Our venture into the interior began on the outskirts of Quito, the capital city, at Chillo-JijÃ³n, an old hacienda that still belongs to the family of the country’s first president, Juan José Flores, who stepped down in 1845. The rosewood furniture and crystal vases in our spacious bedroom exuded a “faded glamour,” and we learned that Britain’s Prince Philip had stayed there in 1962. Early the next morning, we set off for Cotopaxi, “one of the highest active volcanoes in the world” at 19,350 feet. The name means “neck of the moon,” and it is “quite possibly the world’s most perfectly proportioned volcano.” As we hiked along passes where herdsmen have freely roamed for centuries, the only sign of life was “a soaring condor.” Later we descended in a 4x4 to San Agustin de Callo, a colonial hacienda that was formerly home to two ex-presidents. Built on the site of an Incan ruin, it features original Incan walls in the dining room and chapel, and bathrooms with wood-burning stoves.

Our final destination in the interior was Otavalo, the largest textile-market town in South America. After touring stalls and maintaining a strict hands-off policy toward such food items as roasted pigs’ heads, we proceeded to Zuleta, “the promised summit of the hacienda high table.” A grandson of the current president manages this working farm and also oversees a weaving collective for women and a condor-rehabilitation project. All food prepared at Zuleta is organic, “cooked to family recipes dating back centuries” and served in an ancient dining room. On our last day, we toured the old colonial city of Quito. Particularly memorable was La CompañÃa church, a baroque masterpiece famed for its “over-the-top gold leaf.” Contact: Ecuador.com